Holes and Tricks
by Emma Raymond
Summary: A fic I've finally finished-- From Knuckles' PoV. R/K and So/A shipping :3
1. Something Isn't Right

Information on legalities for almost all characters in this story: Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, and all other related characters are © SEGA. Anna Rose is © me, I suppose. The policemen are © themselves :P  
(Authors' Note: I COMPLETELY forgot that Tails and Knuckles live in their own separate homes while I was writing this story. Will you people ever let up on me?!)  
(Another Note: In this story I call Tails' vehicle the Tornado, because on the inside of the SA2Battle/Sonic Advance guide, if you look close enough, you can see script painted on that says 'Tornado III'.)  
  
Holes and Tricks   
An Adventure with Knuckles the Echidna  
Part 1  
  
It was just a few weeks after the incident aboard the space colony ARK, and Sonic was still moping around the apartment about Shadow. I was trying to cheer him up.  
"Hey, come on, Sonic. Don't be so blue." I walked over towards where the hedgehog was sitting as I said this.  
"I don't think that's really possible, seeing as how I was born this color." The sulking animal that was my best friend looked up at me with an unusually large scowl on his face.  
I frowned right back at Sonic as I responded to his statement. "You know what I meant. But, you can't blame yourself for what happened to Shadow. We don't even know if he's gone. We're all just assuming that the worst has happened."  
"Yeah, he probably just landed on a soft pile of grass and leaves after falling through the atmosphere, right?" The hedgehog's voice was dripping with sarcasm as he glared up at me.  
Tails looked up from something he was tinkering with on the kitchen table and softly stated, "Sonic, don't be that way. Knuckles is just trying to help."  
The literally blue hedgehog quickly stood up from his seat on the couch and shouted, "Well, I don't need your help! Just leave me alone!" The now-furious Sonic stormed down the hallway to his bedroom (which is right in between Tails' and my room) and slammed the door shut, causing the picture taped up on his door to fall to the floor.  
It was the picture that was taken of Amy, Sonic, Tails, and me when we got caught out in a rainstorm with Big the Cat. Big had taken the picture when we all were attempting to dry ourselves off with Amy's hairdryer. The enormous, blue cat caught us off guard as Sonic was passing the dryer on to Tails and snapped the photo right as Sonic noticed we were in Big's presence. The photograph ended up with Tails' whiskers being blown back by the appliance in his hands, Amy stood in the doorway of the bathroom soaking wet, and Sonic and I stood in the actual bathroom with half-closed eyes while we began to laugh at the sight of Amy when she realized she would be last to use her own hairdryer.  
Now, it had seemed like Sonic was always in a grumpy mood. He would yell at us out of the blue, to the point that I actually made Amy move out of the apartment so she wouldn't have to be sent to her room to avoid hearing the irate hedgehog and I fight. She ended up at her sister Anna Rose's house, which was where she stayed for quite a while. The four of us live in the same apartment, if you hadn't already figured that out.  
That said, the picture flopped down to the carpeted floor of our apartment. After seeing it glide gently down to the floor, I quietly tiptoed through the hallway and picked up the photograph that was laying face-down on the floor. I studied it for a moment, and then walked out to the kitchen, where the orange fox still sat. I sat down across from him, and then set the picture down in front of the gadget that was dismantled by our friend, the mechanic, and asked, "When was the last time you saw him looking like this? Happy, I mean."  
The two-tailed fox examined the photo on the table and sadly replied, saying, "I don't remember. It's been too long since I've even seen Sonic smile with the whole occurrence of the space colony ARK."  
There was a silence between us, but in the background, we could faintly hear the hedgehog's electric guitar playing out his favorite song. After what seemed to be a minute, I stood up and stated, "I'm going over to Anna's house. I've got to talk to Amy. …I'll have my cell phone on if you need me."  
I headed towards the chair that my leather jacket laid on and put my hand in the right pocket to make sure my sporty red cellular phone was present.   
I quietly shut the front door so as not to disturb Sonic's 'meditation'. While walking down the hall towards the elevators (Sonic, Tails, Amy, and I live on the eighth of ten floors in our building), I felt as if something odd was going on that concerned Amy and Anna. Unfortunately, my suspicions were correct.  
  
When I got to Anna's home, the front door was opened slightly and as far as I could see there wasn't any light in the house that was on. I cautiously walked through the door to find some furniture looking as if a struggle between a few people had occurred.  
"Hello? Is anyone home?" I called out into the darkened living room as I stepped slowly deeper into Anna Rose's residence. "Anna? Amy? Are you… Oh my God!" I ran through the mess of pillows scattered across the floor towards the spot where the older pink hedgehog's body laid. I carefully turned the body over to see if Anna was breathing. I saw her closed eyelids flutter slightly, then fully open to reveal a worried look in her eyes, which were staring straight into mine.  
"Knu-Knuckles? … Oh my God, Knuckles, I'm so glad you're here!" The female hedgehog quickly leaned up from her 'resting' spot on the floor and sobbed into my shoulder, practically defining the phrase "A shoulder to cry on". Anna then clenched her hand into a fist and lightly pounded on my chest while managing to get out, "I'm so sorry… I couldn't do anything to help her…"  
"Wait… what do you mean by, 'couldn't do anything to help her' … Did something happen to Amy?" I was horrified about even thinking that the evil Dr. Eggman had found out where one of my closest friends was living. 'If that sick genius has kidnapped her, he could find out where everyone else that I care about lived and even launch some sort of surprise attack.' I thought long and hard about what Anna could have meant while she still sat there, crying into my fur, thus making one spot in my red coat wet down to my skin.  
All the sudden, there was a slight knocking on the door that startled both Anna and I, and a few men in blue uniforms walked in through the door. They were, of course, police, and they began to question what was going on and that a neighbor had called a few minutes ago claimed they heard sounds of a struggle going on in this house. "Exactly what happened here, ma'am?" The tallest man stepped forward as he asked Anna this.  
"Well, A-Amy and I were… talking… and we heard a knock on the door… I-I thought it was Knuckles here, so I went to open the door… then, when I opened the door, a dark colored animal, I think it might have been a hedgehog, slammed past me and ran straight towards Amy… I tried to stop him; b-but he knocked me down to the floor and Amy… Amy tried to defend herself, but I passed out before I knew what was happening… and when I woke up, Knuckles really was here…" Anna struggled to try not to cry, but failed in the end.  
The same policeman inquired who Amy and Knuckles were. Since the pink hedgehog was so choked up, I answered his questions even though I was shocked to find out what had happened. "I am Knuckles, and Amy is her younger sister." The other three policemen who were with the questioning officer had followed the trail of destruction seemingly left behind by Amy and the mystery attacker into the kitchen. The questioning was cut off by one of the other officers with a shout of, "Sir, there's something in here you all should see."  
We all followed the man's voice into the kitchen to find evidence that whoever was targeting Amy knew what they were dealing with. A small portion of the handle on the younger pink hedgehog's hammer lay on the vinyl floor along with a barely significant amount of white cloth that had a small amount of what seemed to be blood stained on not only the cloth-like material, but also on the floor and the handle segment that had broken off of the young female hedgehog's Piko Piko Hammer. Next to the various items scattered on the kitchen floor, a small piece of paper laid on the kitchen floor. I looked over at the policemen to ensure that it was safe to pick up the note. After receiving silent approval from the officers, I picked up the paper and read it aloud:  
"Dearest Knucklehead,   
I have taken Amy Rose the Hedgehog hostage. If you or anyone else wish to see her ever again, come with Sonic and Tails to the beginning of Radical Highway on Saturday at four p.m.   
If you are late or bring any police agents with you, Amy will have a permanent residence in the Pumpkin Hill Cemetery.  
  
Sincerely,  
Shadow the Hedgehog"  
  
************************************************************************  
  
"Oh my gosh! Are you kidding?" gasped the two-tailed fox. Right after the policemen had found the evidence of a struggle between Amy and who we thought was Shadow, I called the apartment to inform my fox friend what had happened.  
"Would I joke about something this serious? … I'm at Anna's house right now.   
When I got here, the door was open and there weren't any lights on. I walked in to see what was going on and found Anna unconscious on the floor, face down. When she woke up, she started crying her eyes out and kept saying that she 'couldn't do anything to help her'. When I asked what she meant, the police had arrived and more than one person found out what happened just a few minutes before I got there… Oh, God, this is partly my fault! If I had left just two minutes earlier none of this would have happened!" I suddenly realized that if I had been there when Shadow had supposedly came in; he wouldn't have stood a chance of getting Amy farther than the back door. I felt like beating myself up for letting this happen to one of my friends.  
"Come on, Knuckles, even if you did happen to be at Anna's, Shadow would have just used Chaos Control… Come to think of it, I wonder if he even thought of using it at all!" Tails had awakened a suspicion in my mind that I wondered about aloud; "You know, if he wanted to kidnap Amy on his own will, I think Shadow would have just used it in the first place."  
"Are you saying you think somebody, or something, might be controlling Shadow?" My orange-furred friend seemingly tapped into my brainwaves to discover what I was thinking.  
"It's a definite possibility, Tails… I'm coming back to the apartment. I'm getting a copy made of a letter that's supposed to be written by Shadow. Don't tell Sonic about any of this until I get back, okay?" I wanted to make sure the fox didn't do something he'd regret.  
"Got it, Knux. See you in a few minutes." The two-tailed fox hung up the apartment phone just as the battery on my cell phone went dead.  
"Stupid piece of scrap metal…" I muttered as I dropped the item into my pocket again. I then walked over to the officer nearest me and asked if the copy was done yet.  
"Yeah, it is. If you wanted to leave soon or something like that, it's out on the kitchen table." The policeman seemed friendly in his response. I shook his hand for all the cooperation we had given each other and walked inside and picked up the copy of the letter.  
  
When I got home, Tails was watching a mechanics show and seemed to be zoning out. I shut the front door to the apartment as quietly as possible, but the orange fox jumped and immediately looked up at me with worried eyes as he softly asked, "Is Anna okay with all of this going on?"  
"She's a little bit shaken up, but she'll be fine except for the fact that Amy won't be there for a while." I sighed and tossed my jacket on the empty coat rack by the front door. After what seemed to be a minute, I added, "Has Sonic came out of his room at all?"  
The fox laughed slightly as he replied, saying, "Only to get some chilidogs to eat." A short silence occurred between the two of us, then the two-tailed animal looked sternly up at me and said, "Do you think it's time we tell Sonic?"  
"It should be safe to break the news to him now. But, you can't blame me if he goes mental when we tell him." The small fox's eyes widened slightly and I laughed as I quickly added, "Don't worry, Tails. I was only joking!"  
The two of us then walked silently down the hallway towards Sonic's bedroom. When we reached the door, Tails knocked on it and softly called out, "Sonic, can Knux and I talk to you for a minute?"  
"Yeah, come in." The blue hedgehog said loud enough for Tails and I to hear.  
Heeding his response, I opened the door to see him lying on his back on the floor, throwing a tennis ball against the wall and quickly catching it before it smashed into his face.  
"We've got some sort of good news and bad news. … Uhh, we'll start with the 'good' news." I shifted uneasily and glanced over at the orange fox.   
"Shadow is still alive, Sonic." Tails bit his lower lip as he stated this.  
The blue animal swiftly leaned up with a shocked expression spread across his face, forgetting that he was still throwing the small ball until it hit him in the side of the head. This happening, Sonic let out a loud phrase that shocked Tails and me and made me wonder where he had picked it up. After a moment spent rubbing the impact site, the blue animal turned to our orange friend and said, "Are you sure? Did somebody see him?"  
Taking it upon myself to answer his inquiries, I let out a soft sigh and began.   
"Well, there's a rather large chance he was at Amy's older sister's house. That leads to the bad news… Apparently, Shadow's kidnapped Amy." I looked sympathetically at my stunned blue friend as I handed him the copy of the letter.  
Sonic studied the small piece of paper in his hand for a moment, and then looked up at me with wide and worried eyes as he managed to squeak, "Why would he do something like this?"  
"We don't know yet, but I've got a feeling that something, or someone, is controlling him… We'll find out if that's true or not on Saturday." I sighed heavily as I told my hedgehog friend how I had discovered Amy was missing.  
"Sonic, I'm sure…" Tails began to say something, but trailed off when the blue animal left his room and headed out towards the kitchen. When he got there, the picture was still laying out on the table. Sonic sat down in front of the photo and stared at it until I sat down next to him.   
"Don't worry, Sonic. We'll get Amy back no matter what it takes." I grinned at the hedgehog as he lifted his eyes from the somewhat wrinkled picture.  
My blue friend then lightly slammed his fist down on the table and exclaimed, "Yeah, and we're going to find out what's going on with Shadow!" Sonic grinned right back at Tails and me as we all stood up from our spots at the table.  
"Now there's the Sonic we all know!" I exclaimed as I gave my best friends a high five. 


	2. I Think I See What's Going on Here

Info on the legalities concerning the characters in this part of the story:  
Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Rouge, Shadow, Dr. Eggman, and Amy Rose are © Sega.  
  
Holes and Tricks  
An Adventure with Knuckles the Echidna  
Part 2  
  
Saturday came upon Tails, Sonic, and me quickly, but we had been preparing for it. Tails had been modifying the Tornado to be able to "track the heat signature of a specific life form", or in other words, keep tabs on someone.  
"All you have to do is enter the person's name and what being they are." My two-tailed friend was explaining how the system worked to Sonic and me. "You see, when the system has detected the selected person, it'll show you how far away the Tornado is from the person you're tracking, a map of the city or area they're in so you can find them quicker, and the heat signatures of other people within about fifteen yards of their current location."  
"Got it, Tails…Well, are we ready now?" The blue-furred hedgehog looked sternly at our orange fox friend as well as me as he asked this question.  
"Let's go get Amy back!" exclaimed Tails and me in unison. All three of us looked at one another for a moment, and then we all performed a high-five with one another.  
When we got into the Tornado, the orange fox took up the 'pilot' seat and entered "SHADOW/HEDGEHOG" into the newly-installed keyboard for the tracking system. After a few seconds, a map of the area surrounding Radical Highway appeared on the screen, as well as three small, red dots at the beginning of the road and another seemingly motionless dot that appeared to be about ten yards back to scale.  
Concerned, Sonic informed Tails about the four dots on the screen map of Radical Highway. The fox responded by saying, "Well, we'll find out soon enough; it's 3:57 and we're just coming up on the beginning stretch of Radical Highway."  
The orange, two-tailed fox slowly hovered his self-built machine down to the ground. As the blue hedgehog and me jumped out of Tails' aircraft, I noticed a dark-furred hedgehog grinding down the leftmost rail along the road.  
"I'm glad to see you care about your girlfriend, Sonic." Said Shadow coldly as he sped down the rail towards my hedgehog friend, who just stood planted on one spot, not even flinching when the black hedgehog less than a foot away from his face. Shadow then continued on, saying, "In the letter, I told you and the orange freak over there to come because I've invited a couple of friends to our party. I'm sure you know them. They're very glad you came."  
Two shapes then began to emerge from the shadows on the highway. One figure was quite large, while the other was the exact opposite. To almost everyone's shock and horror, the large shape was that of the evil Dr. Eggman. The smaller figure turned out to be Rouge the Bat, who normally worked with the U.S. military on various missions. The strangest thing about the whole scene was that Rouge and Shadow seemed to have the same expressions on their faces.  
"Well, if it isn't Knucklehead, the foolish echidna." Rouge said in an unusually harsh tone of voice. The bat continued on. "I'm so glad you came today. Now I can finish you off!" The white bat catapulted herself high in the air, and then began to drill-dive down towards me in an attempt of attacking.  
As I rolled on the asphalt to avoid the bat's assault, I saw Shadow and Sonic bouncing off of each other with their homing attacks. I noticed right away that the black hedgehog's attacks were quite aggressive while my blue friend's attacks seemed to be made to block the physical assault from causing harm.  
Out of nowhere, I suddenly saw the heel of Rouge's boot aiming for my face. On instinct, I rolled out of the way and covered my head. As I saw the bat's boot drive into the pavement, I heard a loud, crunching sound, and then Rouge slumped down to the ground.  
When her foot lay sideways on the asphalt, I saw what was making the white bat and Shadow act so strangely. A mechanical device was hanging by a wire from the heel of Rouge's boot. In an attempt to bring the female bat back to normal, I picked up the object hanging from her heel and sliced the wire at the base of the white boot that belonged to Rouge with my razor-sharp knuckles.  
As I threw the device over the edge of Radical Highway, a scenario played through my mind. Rouge was constricted onto a medical table with metal restraints as Dr. Eggman milled about around several monitors and machines in the room.  
"Don't worry, bat girl, you won't feel a thing after the process is completed. Of course, by then, you won't remember a thing, either. You'll just do as I tell you." The enormous genius wore an evil grin on his face as he said this.  
"I'll never do anything under your command, Eggman!" The bat spat out.  
"Oh, don't worry, you'll do everything and anything I want you to, Rouge, just wait and see." The egg-shaped human's eyes gleamed evilly as he retorted the female bat's remark.  
"You sick son of a bitch!" cried the bat as the Eggman waddled nearer to her.  
The doctor seemingly ignored Rouge's many vulgar comments as he began to attach the gray device in his hand to the bat's boot, while the white bat struggled for her freedom, even though she knew it was to no avail.  
The human then finished connecting the miniscule machine to Rouge's white boot and walked over to one of the monitors and pressed a button on the screen. All of the sudden, the bat let out a blood-curdling scream as electricity coursed through her body.  
I shook my head in agony, trying to stop the screaming voice echoing in my head. When I opened my eyes, I saw Amy trying to fight Eggman and stop him from taking her away. I saw the pink hedgehog take a swing at the fat genius with her Piko Piko Hammer, and then successfully hit the evil human's self-built aircraft, causing a rather large dent to appear in the body. Furious, Eggman attempted to capture Amy and unfortunately succeeded. Since Amy was so much smaller than he, the pink hedgehog began to lose the fight.   
Intent on saving my friend, I snuck over to where the fat human's craft was parked. The evil genius had already forced Amy into the vehicle, thus I ran over to her seat in the aircraft and grabbed a hold of her hand. But to my disadvantage, Eggman had begun to launch the machine into the air, which caused my body to slam rather hard into the side of the now-airborne craft.  
"Knuckles! Help me!!" sobbed my pink-furred friend as the vehicle slowly soared higher and higher into the air.  
My presence was now known by the human. Eggman looked back and shouted at me, "Get off of my craft, knucklehead!" He then pressed a button that released a device that pushed me away from the machine hovering in midair, and then slammed my body back against the already-damaged siding of Eggman's aircraft. The force of the blow caused me to lose my grip on Amy's hand, and as I plummeted towards the ground, one of the pink hedgehog's gold bracelets came down with me in my hand.   
Luckily before I hit the asphalt, I spotted a small support beam that I managed to maneuver myself into landing on the beam. By then, Rouge had woken up and flew up to the small platform I had landed on and asked me questions about what was going on and if I was all right.  
Before I could begin to answer the bat's inquiries, we were startled into looking below us when a loud, agonizing cry escaped Shadow as Sonic destroyed the metal device around the black hedgehog's wrist that was shaped like a bracelet all hedgehogs wore.  
I began to see another scene play through my mind. This time, it was Shadow secured onto the medical table, struggling against the bonds that held the black hedgehog in place. His right bracelet was removed, which occurred when my blue hedgehog friend tried to save Shadow from falling into the atmosphere.  
After a few exchanged comments, Eggman closed the brainwashing device around the dark-furred animal's wrist, and another long, agonizing cry escaped Shadow and echoed through my mind.  
When the scene ended, Rouge and I flew down towards where Sonic and his look-alike were stationed. As the black hedgehog groaned and slowly began to rise up from the ground, he asked, "What happened? I don't remember a thing that's been going on…"  
Everyone looked over at Tails, who was fiddling with the tracking system to see if he could track the fat human genius. When the orange fox looked up at us, he had a puzzled expression on his face, and then shrugged his shoulders in a confused manner. I took this opportunity to explain my theory.  
"Did anyone else see those, uh, scenes with Shadow and Rouge and Eggman?" I looked around at everyone for a moment until Sonic and Tails replied, saying, "Yeah, I was wondering what was going on when those things occurred."  
Continuing with my explanation, I said, "In those images, Eggman was attaching a metal device to them. My guess is that they were a type of brainwashing machine to carry out that fat old man's evil doings through someone you wouldn't expect it from… Now, the next thing we have to figure out is why Eggman wanted Shadow to kidnap Amy."   
There was a short silence between Rouge and Shadow while Tails ran back to the Tornado to do something, and then the bat and dark-colored hedgehog turned to Sonic and me as the white female bat said, "We're sorry if we caused any trouble for you guys."  
The blue hedgehog looked at me and I looked at him. After a pause, I turned back to Rouge and Shadow and replied, saying, "It's no big deal. You didn't know what you were doing, so you can't blame yourself for your actions."  
All of the sudden, our orange friend leaped out of the Tornado, which was several yards away, and spun his two tails into flying mode. When he reached our location, the fox looked at my hedgehog friend and me as he panted, "I think I know why Eggman put those brainwashing devices on Rouge and Shadow!" Tails pulled out the somewhat smashed device that was attached to the black hedgehog's wrist. He then pointed out a series of barely visible numbers etched into the casing of the small machine and continued on with his theory.   
"…You see, here, this code is a sign that the item is a testing prototype. Many companies use it when they're trying out a new machine, so Eggman must have stolen the code to use on his brainwashing machines here… The reason why he chose Rouge and Shadow to use the test devices on is because he's worked with you before and knows how you react to different dealings. Now, the reason Eggman wanted to kidnap Amy should be clear. If those two machines were just test copies, he's got to have at least one more of those things. And, Sonic, Knuckles, Eggman, and I know how destructive Amy's Piko Piko Hammer can be. If that fat genius has control over Amy, he's also got control of the Hammer! We've got to get Amy back not only because she's our friend, but because in Eggman's hands, the Piko Piko could destroy entire cities the size of Station Square in a matter of just a few hours!"  
Rouge, Shadow, Sonic, Tails, and I looked at each other for a moment in silence, and then I piped up and exclaimed, "Let's go save Amy. Together! ...You guys can join the cause, too, if you want." I turned to the white bat and black hedgehog as I stated the latter.  
"I want to help you get her back. After all, if it wasn't for Amy, I wouldn't have helped you guys out with the Biolizard, and none of us would be standing here right now." Sonic's arch nemesis/friend looked sort of saddened as he stated this.  
Seemingly the exact opposite of Shadow's feelings, Rouge sort of cheerfully exclaimed, "Amy Rose is the new jewel on the Treasure Scope!"  
The blue-furred hedgehog whistled softly as he said, "Man, I never expected to hear anyone say that."  
Tails then frowned at Sonic and rolled his eyes.  
After a bit of unanticipated silence, I broke it by saying, "We've got a full house for the search party!" Everyone then headed toward the apartment after a short discussion on what we were going to about helping Amy.  
  
************************************************************************  
  
As soon as we all got back to my shared residence, everyone began to brainstorm ideas on how to get Amy out of Eggman's clutches.  
"Hey, Tails, is there some way to get a version of the tracking capabilities on the Tornado into a smaller device? We could use that to get a HUGE advantage over that fat egg!" Sonic surprisingly was the first one to come up with a reasonable and safe method after several failed attempts.  
"Good thinking, Sonic! You know, once you get that brain moving, it acts just like your feet!" I jokingly said as I nudged the blue hedgehog, who obviously didn't like my comment that well.  
Not wanting to have a fight break out, Tails interrupted the 'friendly conversation' between Sonic and me by saying, "There is a way to get the program onto a laptop. We just have to download it off the Tornado." The orange fox and the blue hedgehog continued in this conversation until Rouge and Shadow suddenly stood up.  
"We're sorry, but we'll have to leave soon if we want to get back to the military base." Said the white bat as she and the black hedgehog started for the door.  
I then got up out of my chair and stated, "You guys don't have to leave. After all, we do have an… empty room…" I looked away, saddened at the thought of my pink friend's room being unoccupied longer than it needed to be.  
"Don't worry, Knux, we'll get Amy back out of that fat egg's hands in no time. You'll see." Tails smiled up at me encouragingly as he said this to me. I softly sighed as I sat down and confessed, "You're right, Tails; we are going to save Amy, and we'll do it quicker than you can say 'Ro-butt-nik'!" I grinned as I said the latter.  
There was a short silence between everyone in the apartment as Sonic sat in his chair, seemingly in deep thought. I would have made a comment, but I didn't feel like starting another fight. All of the sudden, the blue hedgehog exclaimed, "Hey, Rouge, you said 'WE will have to leave soon to get to the military base.' But, aren't you the only one here with a job in the military?"  
The female bat chuckled slightly as she responded to Sonic's inquiry. "Well, that was true on the day that Shadow…uh…fell from the ARK. But a couple days later when I was being assigned a new mission, in walks Shadow and the pres told me that he'd be my new partner on my missions!"  
The black hedgehog stood in the same spot, seemingly unaware of the words that were spoken by Rouge. He also looked as if he were in deep thought, and then Shadow turned to face the bat and asked her, "What if we told the president we found out about a new mission? We could get some equipment like Tails was talking about."  
"Shadow, that wouldn't be such a bad idea, except the pres might try to take it into his own hands and assign someone else on it." The white bat didn't seem too sure if the black hedgehog's plan would work the way he wanted it to.  
"I can persuade him into giving us the mission; don't worry about it, Rouge." Shadow then turned to Sonic, Tails, and me, and then continued. "You three should come along with us when we do decide to tell the president about your situation, more for backup than explanation, unless something happens so we don't need to tell the pres."  
"Sounds like a plan." Stated the blue hedgehog. He continued, but with a different subject.  
"You guys really should just stay here for at least tonight. I mean, if something happened after you left and we needed to contact you, what would we be able to do? It would work out for the better, but someone will have to stay in Amy's room…" Sonic trailed off, and everyone looked away from one another, remembering the cheerful pink hedgehog for all it was worth.  
Just then, Rouge piped up and said, "I can stay in Amy's room." Everyone looked at the white bat, surprised at her gesture to stay in the now-unoccupied room of the female hedgehog. After all, Rouge was the most unladylike lady I had ever seen, and being cooped up in the girlish room ever imaginable just did not sound like her.  
The bat looked around at all of us and said, "What's so weird about that? It's not like Shadow would ever survive more than thirty minutes before going insane."  
The dark-furred hedgehog scowled at Rouge as Sonic laughed and responded to the bat's statement. "We're all kinda tense about going into Amy's room, actually."  
Tails smirked as he added, "The only way we'd get her up in the morning was to throw yesterday's socks at her face then run like heck back to our rooms to avoid a beating with that Hammer."  
I couldn't help but laugh as I said, "Surprisingly, Sonic's the only one to be hit with the Piko Piko Hammer over the waking routine."  
The blue hedgehog wore a large frown on his face as he chucked a shoe at me as he exclaimed, "Well, maybe that wouldn't have happened if a couple of unnamed roommates didn't jam the door shut!"  
As I laughed, Sonic's ears flattened in a defensive manner. Expecting a better-aimed shoe, I raised my arms to protect my head. Instead, the blue hedgehog whispered, "Everyone, quiet! Someone's outside!"  
Sure enough, muffled footsteps began to grow louder, and then stopped. Everyone's ears were flattened against their heads as the jingling of keys was heard right outside the front door to the apartment.  
"Who would come here this late at night…oh my God, could it be Amy?" ran through my mind.  
When the door opened, a pink hedgehog in a red and white dress with matching boots staggered into the apartment, holding a slightly battered red and yellow hammer. As soon as she had closed the door (everyone originally in the apartment stood there with mouths wide open in shock), the female hedgehog took a few weak steps into the apartment, and then collapsed in a heap, face up on the floor.  
"AMY!!" cried out Sonic as he rushed over next to Amy Rose's unconscious body. 


	3. The Truth About It All... Or Is It?

Disclaimer (whoop-ti-doo!): Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy Rose, Rouge, and Shadow are © Sega. Everyone else is © whoever invented hospitals.  
  
Holes and Tricks  
An Adventure with Knuckles the Echidna  
Part 3  
  
"Amy, please just wake up!" Sonic worriedly cried out. He was obviously very upset about the condition the pink hedgehog had walked into the apartment in, which made me secretly wonder if the female's feelings for Sonic were equally matched.  
As everyone else stood back, stunned at the sight of Amy, I walked up next to the blue hedgehog and said, "Sonic, we've got to get her up on the couch. Help me lift her!"  
Sonic nodded, and then we carefully picked her up off the floor. Amy groaned softly as we set her on the couch, which reassured everybody in the apartment that she was alive, just semi-conscious. As soon as the pink hedgehog had been set down comfortably, she muttered one single word, itai, before she quit moving completely.  
It was then that Tails discovered that there was a blood stain on the carpet where Amy had collapsed. I then knelt down to the female hedgehog's level and lifted her into a sitting position, which was rather difficult since she was unconscious, or for all I knew, possibly dead. While doing this, I felt my glove being saturated by a type of liquid. I then lifted my hand from Amy's shoulder to reveal the entire palm of my glove soaked in blood from the female hedgehog's shoulder.  
"Not good. This is NOT good." I muttered as I discovered the source of Amy's blood loss. Five large gashes in her right shoulder, shaped in the formation of a paw, suggested that she was attacked by an extremely aggressive animal, or maybe even a mechanical creation. I wondered right away if Eggman had anything to do with this, but forgot about it as soon as I heard myself say, "We have to get Amy to a hospital FAST!"  
Shadow and Sonic quickly obliged to lift Amy back up off of the couch while Tails and Rouge and I gathered up everyone's things.  
As soon as we got outside the apartment building and onto the city street, I realized just how late it actually was. The sky was pitch-black except for a few dotted across the summer sky and a full moon overhead. The normally busy streets of Station Square were now littered with just the faint smell of gasoline.  
"The only hospital that would be open this late would be the Station Square Community Hospital, but it's a couple of miles away from here… Sonic, Shadow, you guys up for a run?" I turned to the two hedgehogs that were gently carrying Amy.  
"Sure thing, Knux!" exclaimed Sonic. The blue hedgehog then turned to Shadow as he said, "We've got to keep a steady pace against each other, or we could risk losing our grip on Amy. Got it?"  
"Right. On three. One… Two… Three!" With that, the look-alike hedgehogs raced down the street in the direction of the hospital with the wounded younger female balanced between their grip. Tails, Rouge, and I followed in the air.  
We reached the hospital within five minutes of leaving the apartment. As soon as Sonic and Shadow had cleared the door, the blue hedgehog took full possession of Amy's limp body and shouted, "We need a doctor here, NOW!"  
A nurse quickly walked up to my blue friend and patiently asked, "What seems to be the problem, sir?"  
Seemingly annoyed by the woman's collectiveness, Sonic answered the female hospital worker's inquiry by simply emitting, "This!" and lifted the pink hedgehog's head to his shoulder to allow the nurse to get a look at Amy's bloody shoulder.  
Apparently, Tails had been the only one back at the apartment that hadn't seen the female hedgehog's wound, because as soon as he had gotten a good look at our pink friends' shoulder, the orange fox clapped his hand over his mouth and grew a disgusted look on his face.  
At the same time, the nurse took in the sight of Amy's source of blood loss and the calm hospital worker gave in to a frantic, worried woman.  
"We need a Mobian E.R. surgeon, stat!" cried out the doctor's assistant.  
Sure enough, a doctor that specializes in Mobian surgery rushed seemingly out of nowhere with a gurney in tow. The average-sized human then inspected Amy's shoulder and stated, "She'll need stitches and a blood transfusion, from the bloodstain on the red sir's glove and the blue sir's forearm. Please set her on the gurney and we will take care of the rest."  
Sonic did as the surgeon said and laid the pink hedgehog down on the gurney. As soon as that was done, the doctor sped away toward the operating room. The blue hedgehog just stood in the same spot for a moment, stunned, and then realized what had happened and punched his fist forward at the air and exclaimed, "Man, I HATE waiting!"  
  
Waiting for Amy to come out of surgery seemed more like thirty hours than thirty minutes. During that period of time, Sonic and I washed the pink hedgehog's blood off of ourselves. While my blue-furred friend scrubbed at the dark red stain on his right forearm, he turned to me and asked, "Knuckles, you know how Amy's had that crush on me ever since I saved her back on Little Planet?"  
"Yeah, it's been about four years now, right?" I looked right back at Sonic as I said this, whilst washing my glove as best I could.  
"That seems to be right… Well, anyway, the thing is, I've liked her since then, too. I mean, I've had a sort of crush on Amy while she had a crush on me."  
"Are you joking?" I was so shocked at my hedgehog friend's confession that I dropped my wet (but now blood-free) glove to the tiled floor.  
"No, I'm not joking. When Amy collapsed back at the apartment, she scared half the badnik-smashing life out of me, and it also sort of made my feelings stronger for her." Sonic then quit scrubbing away at his arm to see that there was no more blood left from the stain.  
After I had picked up my soaked glove, I turned to my friend and said, "Tell her how you feel. That's all I can say."  
"Thanks, Knux." Sonic said, and then he walked out of the bathroom.  
I scowled after the blue hedgehog shut the door, and then quietly said to myself, "Great advice, Knuckles. Man, you should really practice what you preach." I knew how I felt about Rouge. I just couldn't understand why it was so difficult for me to let her know about it.  
After I put my now-partially dry glove back on my hand, I also left the bathroom to wait for any news on our pink-furred friend's condition.  
"Is Amy awake yet?" I asked Tails as I walked toward his spot on the bench outside of what I assumed would be Amy's hospital room.  
"No, but she's out of the operating room, at least. The nurses that are monitoring her won't let anyone in the room until she's regained consciousness." The orange fox frowned a little as he told me this.  
"Well, at least we know that she survived whatever attacked her now." I sighed as I stated this, and then sat down next to Tails and Sonic and waited for Amy to wake up just like everyone else.  
Even though it took quite a while for Sonic and me to wash ourselves off, it still seemed like it was another half an hour before one of the nurses walked out of the pink hedgehog's hospital room. I looked over toward Sonic, who stared at the hospital worker with an anxious look spread across his face.  
"Ms. Rose has awakened. You may come in and see her now."  
Everyone let out a great sigh of relief as soon as these words connected with their ears, and then filed into the white hospital room.  
  
************************************************************************  
  
"Hey, guys." Amy looked up and smiled until she saw Shadow. At the sight of the black hedgehog, her eyes narrowed and she growled, "What's he doing here?"  
"Chill out, Amy. There's something you didn't know behind all that's been happening with you." Sonic stepped forward and raised his arms in the "Calm down, nothing's going to happen" sort of way. He then told the pink hedgehog about the brainwashing devices that were on Rouge and Shadow, and immediately after being told what was going on, Amy apologized to Shadow.  
After a bit of silence between everyone in the room, I stepped forward from the group and said, "Amy… I don't mean to be so blunt about this, but could you tell us what happened with your shoulder?"  
The pink female nodded in response, and then took a deep breath and slowly began to tell her story.  
"After I was taken to Eggman's base again, he started to talk about how he had fooled Tails into thinking he was using the brainwashers, or whatever you want to call them, as his main scheme. Then he took me over to this weird chamber-thing and threw me in. It started to fill with this green light, and it was beginning to get warmer and then it just stopped. When I looked around, I saw a different chamber across from the one I was in, and there was a copy of me in it! It, or she, looked exactly like me, except for a metal hand on each arm. When she saw me, she broke through the glass and attacked me. I tried to use my Piko Piko Hammer against her, but it wasn't in the best of shape because of the deal with Shadow kidnapping me when he was brainwashed.  
…I guess I got away from my clone for a while, but she tried to grab my shoulder to crush it in, and I jerked it forward, but she still got me pretty good. That's how I got my shoulder all bloody." Amy let out a sigh before she started again.  
"…I remember using the Hammer Jump, and I think I crashed through a window. I just ran as fast as I could back to the apartment, and when I got there, I was exhausted and my shoulder was hurting quite badly. Then I just blacked out." The female hedgehog seemed tired as she finished explaining her side of the story. Then I remembered that it was almost eleven-thirty at night, and one could understand why she was so tired.  
"There's more, you guys… Eggman, being the fool he is, rambled on about how his duplicates of Shadow and Rouge were so easy to create since he used the brainwashing devices to get them to do what he wanted them to. I guess that's why Shadow kidnapped me; Eggman wanted him to." Amy looked around at everyone as she said this. Rouge and Shadow definitely did not like the fact that Eggman had created copies of them, much less brainwash them.  
After a moment of silence, the pink hedgehog gave a yawn and said, "I think you guys should go soon. Those nurses are going to get mad if I stay up too late." She laughed a little as she stated the latter.  
Sonic then glanced at me before he turned to the group and quietly said, "You guys, I wanted to talk to Amy alone for a little while. You can leave for the apartment if you want to; I'll catch up with you."  
I looked at the blue hedgehog and nodded. I knew what he was going to tell Amy.  
"Good luck." I said, and then motioned for Tails, Shadow, and Rouge to follow me out of the room.  
As I walked out of the room, I heard Sonic talking to Amy. "Amy, there's something you should know…" 


	4. The Fight Begins

Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and all other related characters are © SEGA. (Short disclaimer :P)  
  
Holes and Tricks  
An Adventure with Knuckles the Echidna  
Part 4  
  
Two days later, Amy was back in the apartment and knew that Sonic really did love her, after a rather short explanation. We had now devised a plan to break into Eggman's base. After the plan was all worked out, the pink hedgehog fixed up the worn spots on the Piko Piko and had equipped one side of the mallet head with a metal spike to help make quick work of the semi-robotic clones.  
"All right, everyone. We know how we're going to get inside the base; I saw plenty of ways to get through to where the clones are when Eggman was temporarily holding me hostage. Now we just need to get in there and destroy these fake hedgehogs and bat!" explained Amy as she hoisted the Hammer up into the air so that the spike glistened in the light of the apartment. As everyone sounded their approval, I could just barely hear Sonic whisper, "That's my girl," as a grin crept across his face.  
"Think we'd be able to sneak in a couple attacks while we're there as revenge?" asked Shadow, who was tracing the outline of his Flame Bracelet as he spoke.  
"Why not," I put in, "since we do owe Eggman a little payback."  
"Alright, then let's get going!" exclaimed Tails. Everyone nodded in approval to this, and we all headed for the apartment door, ready for the fight that was yet to come.  
  
Fifteen long minutes later, we were hovering outside Eggman's base.  
"I'll get the vent open; you guys just wait for a minute. Then we can give Eggman the welcoming gift he deserves." I said with a little grin, holding up one of my razor-sharp fists for my friends to see. After a quick moment passed by, I jammed both of my fists into the metal grating that blocked our entryway and gave a few light tugs before it came loose from it's holding place against the wall of metal.  
"Alright, Knuckles! Now just set that thing down on the floor of the vent and we'll follow you in." The orange fox looked at me with a confident smile as he said this, letting me know he was ready to help out. Tails then hovered the aircraft over to where a couple of its arms could grab a hold of the other side of the grate.  
"Alright," I said, "on three. One… Two… Three!" And as soon as the last word had come out of my mouth, the Tornado and I had lifted the metal grate into the vent and set it down with a relatively soft 'clank'.  
After that task was completed, Tails hovered (or flew) the aircraft into the vent and morphed it into what he liked to call "mech mode". Everyone aboard the quickly and quietly hopped out of the now-mech (except for the fox, of course; he was the only one who knew how to pilot it).  
"Okay," spouted Amy as soon as everyone was attentive. "First things first, we have to go into the heart of the building and destroy those clones. After that's taken care of, we have to destroy the equipment he used so we can be sure Eggman won't try it again. After that, it's just a free-for-all to see who can destroy the most machinery." The pink hedgehog had a wide grin on her face as she added the latter, causing Sonic to bear an evil grin as well.  
"Sounds like a good plan to me," stated the blue hedgehog, still wearing that mischievous grin on his face. "So, shall we continue on?"  
"Why wouldn't we?" inquired Rouge, who had finally spoken since we had left the apartment. "After all, we are here for a revenge of sorts. But this time, we'll give Eggman a little more than what he deserves." The white bat had an almost fierce look on her face as she said this.  
"Right," said Shadow, wearing a grim look as he spoke. "Now, let's get a move on; if we wait any longer, Eggman's bound to find us here."  
So with that, we all started on the move again, under the direction of Amy (remember; she was the only one who knew where the clones were being held). We were still traveling through the air vents with the pink hedgehog peering through a grate every now and then just to make sure we were still on the right track.  
"Okay," whispered the pink hedgehog, "we're right above the holding cells for the imposters. Knux, time to rip out another grate."  
Without saying anything, I gave a slightly annoyed look in response to Amy's statement and jammed my fists into the metal. Twisting my knuckles slightly, I wrenched the grate free of its holding place and began to set it down on the floor of the vent. Before it got too low to the ground, though, something flew up and pushed me back, grate still attacked to my knuckles. From the scream that erupted from Amy's mouth, I knew that it was her clone.  
I then heard a large thumping noise and a grunt as the clone flew back out of the vent, complete with a brand new gash on her face from the newly-installed spike on Amy's mallet.  
By this time, everyone else had fled the vent, while I still had the grate attached to my knuckles and the authentic pink hedgehog was in the process of escaping the small metal shaft.  
Then, the fight between each set of original and clone began.  
Right as I had set the grate down on the floor of the vent to free my fists of their prison, I heard the sounds of violent fighting begin. I knew I had to get down there to help everyone, but it would be more than a little difficult to safely glide down to the ground with a twenty-some pound steel grate attached to my hands. I then began to twist my knuckles around in the metal, and soon my fists were free. Immediately after, I just in the air and spread out my dreadlocks and arms and started a slow descent down toward the ground.  
When I landed, I was nearly disgusted at what I saw.  
Each set of fighters had a few gashes and bruises here and there, but other than that, both the clones and the so-to-speak moulds were blocking nearly all attacks. I didn't know about the copies, but if the fight kept up like that, the original furries would become worn out and eventually be beaten.  
When I broke out of my train of thought to go and help my friends, I finally noticed the cluster of fifteen RoboKnuckles surrounding me.  
  
************************************************************************  
  
"Oh, great," I muttered as each slightly-outdated robotic version of me took up a defensive fighting stance. "So, you little pipsqueaks want to fight with the original Knuckles? Well then, you better have brought your can of WD-40, 'cause I'm about to clean you guys up good!"  
I then heard one of the closer imposters yell in an electronic 'language', and then four others came forth with the so-called ringleader and began to attack me. I immediately sprung up into the air and dove right back down, fists first and spiraling to perform Drill Claw. Fortunately for me, these 'bots definitely weren't fast learners and every single one of the five was standing directly where I was aiming to hit. With an electronic wail, all five fizzled out of working order as my razor-sharp knuckles penetrated their metal casing and wires. I got a slight electrical shock from it, but it didn't bother me much.  
The remaining RoboKnuckles screamed at me for the companions I had just put out of order. Before they could start to attack though, I jumped high in the air to glide around and see how everyone was fighting.  
It was then that I heard a fierce cry from on of the Amy's and a blood-curdling scream from the other. Right after, Sonic's voice could be heard screaming the pink hedgehog's full name.  
Concerned, I glided over to the battle area and found it rather relieving from what I saw, despite the goriness. The real Amy was standing over her clone's body, seemingly just staring at the open wound on her chest from the spiked mallet head.  
"One down, two to go, I suppose," I stated as I continued to look on at the growing puddle of blood surrounding the duplicate female hedgehog's body, which was also shorting out the mechanical arm. "Too bad I didn't get to see the fight."  
"I noticed your little party over there. I would have gone over to help you, but Tails and I have been dropping in on each fight once in a while just to buy our guys a hit." The blue hedgehog gestured over to the remaining two fights, the up toward the ceiling to where Tails was hovering his mech.  
"No big deal," I said in response. Then I turned to Amy, who was surprisingly silent, and said, "Amy, I want you to go and help Tails, Shadow, and Rouge while Sonic and I clean up those bolt-buckets over there. Got it?"  
"Alright!" exclaimed the pink hedgehog as she turned away from Sonic and me.  
"Knux, I just have one question before we go and smash those guys," said the hedgehog. "You didn't use the WD-40 line, did you?"  
To answer his question, I glared and cracked my knuckles. He then groaned and rolled his eyes before heading toward the remaining ten RoboKnuckles. I followed suit and within seconds, the area was filled with the sound of metal smashing and circuits frying.  
"Well, that wasn't so hard," I muttered as I looked over the heap of scrap metal and wires that Sonic and I had created.  
"Definitely easy. It almost makes me wish there were some stronger… Oh, boy." As the blue hedgehog stated the latter, he lifted his arm and pointed behind me.  
When I turned around to look, I saw what I never wanted to see.  
Rouge was backed up against the wall, while her duplicated had gotten a hold of Amy's hammer and was about to smash the only woman I ever had feelings for to pieces. 


	5. The Finale

Disclaimer: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and all other characters are © SEGA. Anna Rose is © me.  
  
Holes and Tricks  
An Adventure with Knuckles the Echidna  
Part 5  
  
"ROUGE! Don't worry, I'll help you!" I yelled out as I began to sprint toward the trio of females. The next moments felt as if time were slowing itself down so I could save the bat. I couldn't feel my feet pounding against the floor; it was just my heart beat echoing through my body as I got closer and closer to saving the life of the woman of my dreams.  
As my fist stabbed into the back of Rouge's imposter, I felt a sudden jolt of pain shooting through my body. It was then that I finally noticed what part of the clone's body I had punctured.  
My razor-sharp knuckles were embedded into the clone's mechanical shoulder blade area.  
Gasps of horror came from both Rouge's and Amy's mouth. I flinched slightly as the electricity coursing through my body became slightly stronger. I didn't have a clue if my hit had done any damage, either; all the movement that had occurred in Rouge's look-alike's body was that she had dropped the mallet to the floor.  
"Knuckles… we'll help you out. Hang in there, for me… okay?" sputtered the white bat, sounding rather shaken up. All the while, I was trying to free my fist from it's forced resting place in the mess of wires.  
The pain of the electric shock was worsening as the seconds passed, and it became evident through my voice-wearing grunts. I thought I heard a small sob from Rouge's mouth as I struggled to free myself from the immobile imposter. The pain was searing through my entire body as everything began to turn grayish in color.  
"Don't worry, bud, I'm here to help ya!" exclaimed Sonic as he seemingly appeared out of thin air to help. As my vision began to grow blurrier and pain controlled my body, I heard the blue hedgehog grunt as he leapt up right behind me and tugged at my shoulders to help free me.  
"Holy mother of… Knux, you're still conducting an electric charge! Just one more pull…" grunted Sonic as he pulled harder on my upper body. Finally, the flow of electricity came to an abrupt halt , and I could feel my body being jolted to the cold ground of Eggman's base.  
"Is… Is he going to be alright?" Amy asked in a quiet voice.  
"Yeah, just don't touch him for a couple minutes; I'm nearly positive the electric shock is still in his body." The blue hedgehog had a slight air of annoyance in his voice as he spoke—I assumed that when he was trying to pull me free of the source of electricity, he had got a shock as well.  
While this conversation was occurring, my vision slowly lost the grey blurriness around the edges of everything that came into my range of eyesight. I still felt rather weak from the intensity of the shock, though; I found it almost hard to pick myself up into a sitting position. Rouge had evidently seen this, because she came over with a slightly worried, yet nervous expression as she knelt down to help keep me from falling over in my embarrassingly weak state.  
"Hey… what happened to the clone?" I asked, my voice sounding surprisingly weak in my own ears.  
"I… I'm not quite sure," muttered the bat in a more relaxed voice than I had expected. "When you pierced the metal, I think you might have hit something vital."  
As I stared at my right hand, I began to notice specks of blood in the tips of each knuckle. I looked closer at the specks, and realized why the imposter had stopped moving.  
"I think I might have cracked the spinal cord. That doesn't explain why she's still standing, though…"  
"That's rather odd," Rouge started to say as her imposter suddenly fell down, stiff as a board.  
Right at that moment, Sonic and Amy came over by the white bat and me. Both looked a bit shaken to me, but when the blue hedgehog spoke, his voice was strong.  
"Amy and I were looking around this place, and it looks like Eggman's taken cover somewhere else. It's almost like he's –letting- us take over his base and destroy everything," stated Sonic.  
"But," interrupted the pink hedgehog, "we don't know if he was expecting us or not. He could've just had an old person moment and forget everything that he has here."  
"Interesting point, but this is Eggman we're talking about—not some old owl who always forgets to hoot in the night. I really don't think he'd do something like this and not plan ahead." I said as I slowly got to my feet, with some help from Rouge.  
"I guess you're right… But, really—would he have –that- much faith in the clones that he'd leave everything unguarded, or did something happen to him?" Rouge inquired, breaking her short silence.  
"I wonder if we'll ever find out," pondered the female hedgehog out loud.  
"We can find out later," cut in Sonic, "because we have to see if Shadow and Tails need help. Then we can have some fun playing hardball with all of this machinery."  
"Sounds good to me," I stated as I looked around the room for signs of the kitsune and the fighting hedgehogs. I thought it odd that there were no audible sounds of fighting, and began to wander toward a random hallway, searching for the trio and any signs of them being there. I didn't need to search any longer, though; the ceiling crashed in suddenly as a missile from Tails' mech blasted it's way through.  
"Is everyone alright down there?" called out the orange fox's voice.  
"I'm fine," I called back. "But you could've come some other way, right?"  
"Actually, we really couldn't," Shadow said in reply. "When we finally got rid of that faker, something happened in the electrical system upstairs that probably was caused by the fighting."  
"Well, since we know everyone's finished their fight now, I think it's about time we got to have a little fun playing rough with all of this unused equipment." Sonic stated, who came up behind me with Amy and Rouge following. All had pleased and devilish looks on their faces as we anticipated the destruction that we would cause as payback for all Eggman had done to us.  
  
************************************************************************  
  
Within minutes of finding Tails and Shadow, the sound and smell of sizzling electrical circuits filled the air. The orange fox and Rouge were carefully cutting each wire, while Sonic, Amy, Shadow, and I were recklessly tearing apart nonfunctional machines and 'bots.  
"Aw, come on, guys," protested Sonic as he watched the two being so delicate with their work. "Nearly all of the fun in destroying things is smashing and bashing things to pieces, not taking it apart like it's ancient origami!"  
"Some of us would like to see how it works before it's destroyed," said Tails in reply.  
I couldn't help but chuckle as I watched the blue hedgehog look at the fox and the bat again, and then turn around and roll into a Spin Dash with a sigh. Then I turned around and busted up a few panels that controlled some rather outdated machines, when compared to some of the machines and gadgets that Tails had built.  
Soon after, everyone surveyed the damage caused, and celebrated all of the destroyed weapons. Eggman's whereabouts were of no concern to us—we had just destroyed many of the crazy scientist's projects, never to be repaired.  
"I wonder if we'll ever see or hear of Eggman again," pondered Rouge out loud.  
"It would get a bit boring around here, not having any crazy old scientists to antagonize." I admitted with a slight chuckle.  
"Well, it'll be nice to at least have a break from all the fighting, won't it?" inquired Amy, looking around at all of us. Everyone nodded in agreement; we all had experienced more fighting than we had wanted to that day.  
"Well, I think it'd be a good idea if we all went home and rested, and alert Anna of the whole situation. She's probably worried half to death without even knowing about the fight," Sonic stated with a little embarrassment.  
Once again, everyone agreed, and we all headed back to the room where we had entered in. As we climbed back through the air vents, I found it almost unnerving that there weren't any traps or enemies waiting to ambush us on our way out.  
When we had gotten to Anna Rose's house, the first thing she did was take her own mallet and hit all but Rouge and Amy for not informing her of the situation. When she got to her younger sister, though, she hugged her tightly and looked near a breakdown. I walked out onto the porch as the family reunion continued; after about a minute, Rouge came outside and joined me.  
"Hey, Knux… I wanted to thank you for saving me back there. You put yourself in danger to save me from it; I thought that was really sweet," the white bat whispered, looking down at the step she was sitting on.  
"Well… I guess you do know how I feel from my actions then, right?" I looked away as I stated this.  
There was a pause, and the Rouge finally responded, saying, "Yes, I know, and I feel the same way."  
Both of us sat silently for a few minutes until the rest of our group came out. Everything was better than normal now—the one woman I cared about felt the same way, and Eggman would not be heard from again.  
And that was the end of that adventure.  
~~ End ~~ 


End file.
